Sometimes the common man–or not so common man, such as basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman–can teach elite media, politicians, and diplomats a thing or two. The media largely billed Rodman’s visit to North Korea to see its young leader as "bizarre," or "the weirdest encounter." They also deemed "disastrous" his interview on ABC’s "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos" after he got home. Apparently, Rodman’s agents agreed with the latter characterization and cancelled further television interviews after the appearance with Stephanopoulos.

It’s true that Rodman is not a slick media performer; it is also a fact that, as Stephanopoulos pointed out ad nauseam, Kim Jong Un is an odious dictator who commits gross human rights violations, operates prison camps, has policies that result in his people’s starvation, and yes, as Stephanopoulos implied, probably has had people murdered. Yet in Rodman’s unpolished answers to Stephanopoulos’ interrogation about why the former basketball star would visit such an evil man, there can be found some gems of wisdom of which Americans should take note.

America’s leaders – Democrat or Republican–like to personalize conflicts with countries that don’t see eye to eye with U.S. policy by demonizing their leaders. Remember Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Manuel Noriega of Panama, Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, and Salvador Allende in Chile, just to name a few. When U.S. leaders demonize a foreign leader, who is usually from weak, developing country (notice this isn’t done with leaders of powerful adversaries, such as China or the Soviet Union), it is only a matter of time before the United States removes him from power. The impetus of prior demonization is so great that even if the branded leader flip-flops and begins cooperating with the United States, such as Qaddafi, the motivation is still there to take him out.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and North Korea’s leaders – Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and now Kim Jong Un – have been so demonized for working on nuclear and missile programs and engaging in threatening rhetoric. As a result, these countries have been isolated using American threats and U.S.-led international sanctions.

Rodman raised the hackles of U.S. leaders, diplomats, and the media by having the gall to break the isolation against the demonized North Korean leader. Thus, Rodman’s visit was portrayed implicitly as "unpatriotic." For example, Stephanopoulos asked Rodman if his failing to challenge Kim Jong Un on North Korea’s human rights record didn’t make him appear to be propping up the dictatorial regime. Rodman is a private citizen, for god’s sake, engaged only in a "basketball tourism" trip! (Disclaimer: On my two trips to Ukraine, I also failed to denounce the regime there for undermining democracy.) Also, a short while ago, the State Department frowned on the visit of former Governor Bill Richardson and Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Chairman of Google. Apparently, nothing should break the hermetic seal of the U.S. government’s virtual quarantine of North Korea.

In his comments on "This Week," however, Rodman dared to implicitly raise questions about the isolation policy. Rodman acknowledged that Kim Jong Un loves power and control, but said he offered Kim some advice for future talks with President Obama "[Kim] loves basketball. And I said the same thing, I said, ‘Obama loves basketball.’ Let’s start there." The Washington establishment, of course, rolled their eyes at the flamboyant former basketball player’s naivete when cavorting with a known "monster."

Instead, Rodman’s visit should begin to raise the American people’s eyebrows about an isolation policy that has been a dismal failure. North Korea just keeps testing nuclear devices and missiles and engaging in overheated rhetoric against the United States. Furthermore, economically strangling North Korea merely makes it desperate and dangerously more prone to sell nuclear and missile technology around the world.

After leaders or countries are demonized, it becomes impossible for U.S. government policymakers to believe that such countries, even though they are harsh dictatorships, may actually have legitimate security concerns. In the case of North Korea, these concerns are simply deemed "paranoia." In other words, often- sanctimonious American foreign policy takes for granted that an internally repressive regime will be externally aggressive, which is not so but can be self-fulfilling. In short, the United States has to learn to tolerate and work with countries that don’t match U.S. standards of democracy and human rights.

The world’s only superpower, which has an overextended defense perimeter that provides an umbrella over the now wealthy South Korea (which has 30 to 40 times the GDP of the destitute North), has troops in the South and regularly conducts joint military exercises with that country. Realizing that the United States has been the most interventionist nation in the post-World War II period and after the U.S. overthrow of the aforementioned dictators, none of whom had nuclear weapons, it doesn’t seem ridiculous that North Korea would want to get a few such weapons to threaten the United States, so as to keep it from suffering the same fate. Yet despite all the blustering North Korean rhetoric – perhaps porcupine-like – Rodman reported that Kim said he wanted no war with the United States.

And what of Stephanopoulos’ other indignant observations about North Korea? When he challenged Rodman about North Korea’s prison camps, Rodman made the seemingly outrageous assertion that the U.S. had them too. Although North Korean prison camps are much worse than U.S. prisons, this is not an outrageous comment from an African-American, who might see U.S. prisons filled disproportionately with other African-Americans. Also, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and many of the people incarcerated are for there for drug transactions that shouldn’t even be illegal.

Stephanopoulos also implied that Kim Jong Un is a murderer. That is probably accurate, but the American superpower has undoubtedly killed many more people overseas in the post-World War II period than any other country on earth, including North Korea. Only a few examples are needed to make the point: The United States killed 4 million Vietnamese in the Vietnam War using carpet-bombing and chemical agents, an estimated 1.5 million in the needless U.S. invasion of Iraq, 1 million Japanese and German civilians in World War II using firebombing and atomic weapons after the war was already won, a half a million to a million Indonesians after a U.S.-sponsored coup that included U.S. intelligence fingering communists for elimination, and almost two million North Koreans in the Korean War when the United State carpet bombed the North and intentionally starved them by bombing dikes to ruin their crops. This evidence only goes to show that the U.S. government rarely looks at itself in the mirror when pillorying and pummeling foreign countries.

The United States does not need to befriend Kim Jong Un and the North Koreans – Dennis Rodman can do that. What it needs to do is disengage from the South Korean peninsula and let the now rich South Korea defend itself. North Korea will be much less prone to threaten the U.S. if it is not defending South Korea. If the North does act up, the United States should no longer bribe it with aid in the vain hope of better behavior. Also, the United States, with the most powerful nuclear arsenal on the planet, should acknowledge that North Korea is unlikely to give up its few nuclear weapons but realize that the threat of mass obliteration will likely keep North Korea from actually firing the weapons at the United States. Lastly, North Korea’s isolation should be ended. Counterintuitively, the North Korean leadership probably fears this possibility the most, because new ideas creeping into the country could lead to instability or even a revolt by the populace.

201231162212 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2Feland%2F2013%2F03%2F05%2Frodmania-in-north-korea%2FRodmania+in+North+Korea2013-03-06+06%3A00%3A42Ivan+Elandhttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2F%3Fp%3D2012311622 to “Rodmania in North Korea”

Fact: North Korea has never attacked the United States.
Fact: The United States inserted itself into a civil war on the Korea Peninsula.
Fact: 60 years after the shooting has stopped the United States refuses to leave.
Conclusion: North Korea is paranoid and aggressive.

Thank you for attending today's lesson on The American Mind; Often Wrong but, Never in Doubt.

Mr Eland, I think the 'disaster' was Stephanopoulos' absurd grilling of Rodman, not Dennis' answers. The longer Clinton's former boy wonder questioned basketball's clown prince like he was some kind of diplomat, the more embarrassing it became. Seems like it was totally a ratings stunt, which is the only reason I was watching in the first place. There was nothing wrong with Dennis' responses. Although he is not very articulate, Rodman showed more dignity and common sense than did George, who, in my opinion, remains more of a Dem operative than a real journalist.

fact: North Korea has Nukes
fact: North Korea threatens them on us on a daily basis, and is borderline insane (notice what that gives you)
fact: North Korea has dug invasion routes into South Korea, and our military is the only thing stopping them
fact: North Korean has literally every military advantage against South Korea
Conclusion: Clearly with us leaving, North Korea will disarm and the land of Korea will be filled with sunshine, rainbows, and flowers.

thank you for attending today's lesson of fixing morons who know half of the arguement :D

Dennis Rodman's trip to North Korea is good. He should go on more trips like that to other nations too. The only trips Ehud Barack Obama, George Warmonger Bush , Hillbilly Clinton & GH Warmonger Bush and most of the people in their administrations should take is to the ICC and never return.

About 15 years ago in Texas, some racist vermin dragged an elderly black man to death behind a pickup truck. His family couldn't afford the funeral. Rodman paid for it, with very little publicity (I only heard about it as a brief aside in news coverage of the incident). I thought it was a pure class act, and I've respected the man ever since.

Fact: The US is at war with the world and has carried out several wars of aggression – the ultimate crime against humanity.
Fact: The US has placed 'missile defense' systems close to Russia to wipe out any Russian missiles surviving a US first strike.
Fact: The US is the only country that has used WMD – partly to test out delivery systems and the medical effects (Mengele eat your heart out)
Fact: The US Emperor has declared it is legal for him to murder anyone anywhere in the world, based on secret evidence seen by a secret committee
Fact: The has a Soviet style gulag
Fact: The US conducts show trials
Fact: The US tortures
Fact: The US uses its financial system as a weapon of war.
etc, etc